Budapest Financial Summit

Mihály Varga

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Governor

Born in Karcag in 1965, he earned his secondary school diploma in Áron Gábor Secondary School in 1983, and he went on to graduate from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences in 1989.

He worked as an economist at the No. 43 State Construction Corporation in Budapest, and in 1990 at the Eastern-Hungarian Water Management and Planning Enterprise in Szolnok. Between 1995 and 1997, he was a visiting instructor at the Szolnok Economic College, and an honorary college professor.

Between 1998 and 2001, he served as Minister of State for Policy at the Ministry of Finance, and from 2001 to 2002, he held the position of Minister of Finance. Between 2010 and 2012 he was Minister of State, Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, and then he became Minister without Portfolio responsible for the relations with some international financial organisations. From March 2013 to 2018 he was Minister of National Economy. From March 2017 to 2022 he was President of the National Competitiveness Council. Between 2018 and 2024 he served as Minister of Finance. Since 4 March 2025, he has been the Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank.

From 1990 to February, 2025 he was member of Parliament in representation of Fidesz. He was an elected member of Parliament for the 8th constituency of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County between 1998 and 2014, then he was the elected member of Parliament in an individual electoral district for the Budapest 4th constituency between 2014 and 2022. Between 1994 and 2003 and from 2005 to 2013, he was one of the vice presidents of Fidesz.

Roles in public life: Since 1997, the vice-president of the Hungarian-Kazakh Friendship. From 2000, member of the Chivalric Order of St John. From 2001 to 2011, presbyter of the Reformed Church congregation in Karcag, and a member of the Rákóczi Association. From 2003 to 2015, Chair of the Nagykun Civil Association. Member of the Hungarian Athletic Club. From 2012 to 2025, co-president of the Joint Venture Association, the Hungarian-Kazakh Intergovernmental Committee for Economic Cooperation and the Hungarian-Korean Joint Economic Committee. From 2013 to 2025, the president of the Board of Trustees of the Annamária Szalay Media Foundation. From 2021 to 2023, the president of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Rudolf Kalman University. From 2021 to 2025, the president of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Civic Education.

Fatih Karahan, Ph.D.

Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye

Governor

Fatih Karahan was born in 1982 in Eskişehir and graduated from Boğaziçi University, Departments of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering in 2006. After earning a master's degree, he completed a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012.

Mr. Karahan started his career as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2012 and served as the Team Leader of Labor and Product Market Studies and also a monetary policy advisor at the Bank until 2022.

He also taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia University and New York University. Then, Mr. Karahan became a senior economist at Amazon in 2022 and was appointed principal economist there in November 2022.

Mr. Karahan, who had been acting as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye since 28 July 2023, was appointed Governor on 3 February 2024.

Holly Fang

Singapore FinTech Association

President

Holly Fang is President of the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA), Singapore’s leading national fintech industry body, where she represents the industry and works closely with regulators, financial institutions, technology companies and founders to advance the development of Singapore’s fintech ecosystem. In this role, she helps shape industry dialogue on innovation, regulation, talent and cross-border collaboration, while strengthening Singapore’s position as a leading global fintech hub.

Holly is also the Chief Business Officer at Finmo, a global Treasury Operating System for businesses, where she oversees strategic partnerships and market expansion. Prior to joining Finmo, Holly held leadership roles at Aspire, a Singapore-based fintech providing all-in-one financial workflow solutions to SMEs, and at Airwallex, the global leader in cross-border payments. Holly began her career at the Singapore Economic Development Board, and brings over a decade of experience leading strategic partnerships across both the public and private sectors.

Dániel Palotai

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Deputy Governor

As from September 2025, Dániel Palotai is Deputy Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB), in which capacity he is Member of the Monetary Council and he is also responsible for international relations.

Between 2020 and 2025, he served in Washington DC on the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), representing the Central and Eastern European Constituency as Executive Director, and from November 2024 as Alternate Executive Director. From 2013 to 2020, he was Executive Director and Chief Economist of the MNB. From November 2010, he headed the Macroeconomic Policy Department of the Ministry for National Economy. Between 2007 and 2010 he served at the European Central Bank as an economist responsible for non-euro area EU member states.

In 2015, he was awarded the Sándor Popovics Prize. He is an Honorary Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest and Member of the Board of Trustees of Maecenas Universitatis Corvini Foundation. He is Vice President of the Hungarian Economic Association (MKT)

Min Soo Kwon

Bank of Korea

Deputy Governor

CAREER

2024. 5 Deputy Governor, Bank of Korea

2023. 6 Director General, Reserve Management Group

2023. 2 Deputy Director General, Reserve Management Group

2021. 7 Director, Reserve Management Strategy Division, Reserve Management Group

2019. 7 Head, Reserve Management Group (Reserve Management Planning Team, Treasuries Portfolio Team I, Investment Strategy Team)

2016. 7 Head, Foreign Exchange Market Team, International Department

2015. 2 Head, Reserve Management Group (External Fund Management Team, Risk Management Team)

2014. 2 Deputy Director, Ministry of Strategy and Finance (Dispatched from the Bank)

2013. 2 Senior Manager, Reserve Management Group

2010. 3 Investment Officer, New York Representative Office

2006. 8 Senior Manager, Reserve Management Group

2004. 9 Economist, Economic Statistics Department

2003.11 Economist, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dispatched from the Bank)

2002. 5 Manager, Reserve Management Department

1995. 3 Junior Economist, International Department

1995. 1 Joined Bank of Korea

EDUCATION

May. 2002 MBA, Yale University, U.S.A

Feb. 1995 B.A., Business Administration, Yonsei University, Korea

Barry Eichengreen

University of California (Berkeley)

George C. Pardee & Helen N. Pardee Chair

Distinguished Professor of Economics and Political Science

Barry Eichengreen is George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. In 1997-98 he was Senior Policy Advisor at the International Monetary Fund.

Professor Eichengreen is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (class of 1997). He is a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association (class of 2022), a corresponding fellow of the British Academy (class of 2022), a corresponding member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences (class of 2025), and a Life Fellow of the Cliometric Society (class of 2013). He has held Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships and been a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Palo Alto) and the Institute for Advanced Study (Berlin). For 15 years from 2004 he served as convener of the Bellagio Group of academics and officials. He is a regular monthly columnist for Project Syndicate.

Professor Eichengreen has been awarded the Economic History Association's Jonathan R.T. Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching and the University of California at Berkeley Social Science Division's Distinguished Teaching Award. He is the recipient of a doctor honoris causa from the American University in Paris, and was the 2010 recipient of the Schumpeter Prize from the International Schumpeter Society and the 2022 recipient of the Nessim Habif Prize for Contributions to Science and Industry. He was named one of Foreign Policy Magazine's 100 Leading Global Thinkers in 2011. He is a past president of the Economic History Association (2010-11).

His most recent book is Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto (Princeton University Press, 2026).

Jacob A. Frenkel

Group of Thirty (G-30)

Chairman Emeritus

Bank of Israel

Former Governor

Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel is Chairman Emeritus of the Group of Thirty (G-30), Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the financial firm Plus500. Previously, he was Chairman of JPMorgan International (2009-2020), Vice Chairman of AIG (2004-9), Chairman of Merrill Lynch International (2000-2004), and two-terms Governor of the Bank of Israel (1991-2000). He is credited with reducing inflation in Israel and achieving price stability, liberalizing Israel’s financial markets, removing foreign exchange controls, and integrating the Israeli economy into the global financial system. Previously, he was the Economic Counselor and Director of Research, at the IMF (1987-1991), and the David Rockefeller Professor of International Economics at the University of Chicago (1973-1987). He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Distinguished Fellow of the CEPR, a Global Member of the Trilateral Commission, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the International Advisory Council of the Weizmann Institute of Science. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (1995-1996), and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1999-2000).

Prof. Frenkel is a Laureate of the 2002 Israel Prize in Economics, and is a recipient of several Honorary Doctoral degrees and other decorations and awards from various governments and universities.

Binur Zhalenov

National Bank of Kazakhstan

Deputy Governor

Binur Zhalenov graduated from L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University with a degree in Computer Engineering and Software (2014). Holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from New York University in Information Systems with a specialization in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (2021).

In 2019, he served as Advisor to the Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

In 2021 worked as Chairman of the board of JSC “Center for Development of Payment and Financial Technologies” of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

In 2023 served as Chairman of the board of JSC “National Payment Corporation” of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

From 2024 to 2026 served as Advisor to the Governor – Head of Digital Transformation of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

On 13 March 2026 by the Order of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Binur Zhalenov was appointed Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

Awarded the state award – the medal “Eren Enbegi Ushin” (For Distinguished Labour).

Zoltán Kurali

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Deputy Governor

From April 22, 2025, he serves as Deputy Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, responsible for monetary policy, financial stability, and foreign reserve management. Prior to his appointment, he was the CEO of the Government Debt Management Agency (ÁKK Zrt.).

Between 2006 and 2019, he worked at Deutsche Bank, where he held several senior positions, including CEO in Hungary, Head of Capital Markets for the region, Head of Bond Markets, and Head of Corporate Finance. He was involved in numerous strategic debt and equity financing transactions, as well as in foreign exchange, interest rate, commodity, and credit risk management, primarily in Hungary and the Central and Eastern European region.

From 1999 to 2006, he worked at Citibank as Head of Treasury Sales.

He graduated from the Budapest University of Economics in 1998. He began his professional career during his university years as a research analyst at various local brokerage firms and worked on a project basis at ÁKK between 1997 and 1998.

Christian de Boissieu

Sorbonne University

Professor Emeritus of Monetary and Financial Economics

Christian de Boissieu is Professor emeritus of Monetary and Financial Economics at the University of Paris I (Panthéon – Sorbonne). In the past, he taught also at the College of Europe (Bruges) and at Sciences Po Paris. He is Fellow of the Academy of Technology (France) and the Royal Academy of Belgium. He is senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (Morocco).

Former Consultant to the World Bank and the European Commission, he is honorary President of the French Finance Association.

Professor de Boissieu was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers which advises the French Prime Minister (2003-2012).

 He has also advised several foreign governments. He has run several TACIS program missions in Russia during the transition period 1992-1998.  Since 1984 he has worked extensively in and on North-African and Sub-Saharian countries.

Professor de Boissieu has published extensively in the field of money, banking and finance, European issues and public policies, including development policy.

He has received his Ph.D in economics in 1973 (University of Paris). He was post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern University and Harvard University,and visiting scholar at the University of Minnesota and at the Federal Reserve System (Washington D.C).

He is commander of the French “Légion d’honneur”.

Photo by Lionel Guéricolas

Sholthana Begum

Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

Senior Director of Technology and Digital

Sholthana Begum is the Senior Director of Technology and Digital at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), bringing over 20 years of experience across frontline regulation, central banking, and financial services, having held senior roles at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England.

Throughout her career, Sholthana has built expertise in regulatory technology, data-driven innovation, and digital transformation. She has a proven track record in designing, developing, and executing technology and data strategies, whilst delivering operational efficiencies that support regulatory missions.

At the CMA, Sholthana leads on all aspects of technology, systems, and digital capability. Her remit covers strategy, infrastructure, data management, digital products, IT services, and cyber security and scalable AI, ensuring that the CMA is equipped with robust, scalable, and innovative technology to meet the demands of a fast-changing and complex regulatory environment - both now and in the future.

Sholthana is passionate about harnessing technology and data to strengthen regulatory effectiveness and to drive positive outcomes for markets, businesses, and consumers alike.

Levente Sipos-Tompa

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Deputy Governor

From October 2, 2025, he serves as Deputy Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, deputy governor responsible for financial institutions supervision and consumer protection.

Graduated in law at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in 2008, he obtained his M.Sc. degree in economics at Corvinus University of Budapest in 2011 and his legal professional qualification in 2016.

He began his professional career in 2009 at the Hungarian Development Bank, where – following several executive appointments – he served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors from April 2019 for more than five years. During this period, he gained extensive experience in development banking operations and the allocation of European Union funds.

He represented Hungary for two years on the Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank (EIB), where he took part in the decision-making processes of the multilateral development bank. He also served as a member of the Management Board of the European Long-Term Investors Association (ELTI).

Shahin Mahmudzade

Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Executive Director

Shahin Mahmudzada currently serves as the Executive Director of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a position he has held since January 2024. As Executive Director, he is responsible for Financial stability, Sustainable development of the financial sector, Market conduct regulation, and Resolution. He initially rejoined the Central Bank in July 2023 as a Counselor to the Governor, having started his early career in the bank's Monetary Policy Department in 2016.

Prior to his current executive role, Mr. Mahmudzada spent five years at PASHA Life Insurance OJSC, where he rapidly progressed from Senior Specialist to Head of the Credit Market and Liquidity Risks Management Division, ultimately serving as the Head of the Risk Management Department from 2021 to 2023.

A certified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) since 2021, he holds a Master’s degree in Finance from Sabancı University and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Ankara University, which included a one-year Erasmus exchange program in Economics and Management at KU Leuven in Belgium. Mr. Mahmudzada is also a distinguished winner of the third "Yukselish" competition. He is married and has one child.

Gábor Gyura

Hungarian Sustainable Investment and Finance Association

Founder & Director

Gábor Gyura is the Director of the Hungarian Sustainable Investment and Finance Association and a Visiting Fellow at the Florence School of Banking & Finance at the European University Institute. From 2022 to 2025, he worked as a consultant to the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), designing and delivering international capacity-building programmes for banks. Prior to that, he held senior expert and management roles at the Central Bank of Hungary and served as a financial services policy expert at the European Central Bank.

Shasha Kartini Ridzam

Bank Negara Malaysia

Director of Sustainability Department

Shasha Kartini Ridzam led the Strategic Communications department in Bank Negara Malaysia from November 2020 to June 2025, before recently transitioning to the Sustainability department. Before assuming these roles, she was AirAsia’s Group Head in charge of Global Affairs, Government Relations, Sustainability and Communications.

Prior to AirAsia, Shasha spent 10 years as an economist in Bank Negara Malaysia with a focus on economic development, international economics and financial stability. She led a team of economists that provided assessments, forecasts and policy advice for monetary policy, financial policy as well as structural issues to the Malaysian Government. Her career in the central bank also included a stint as a core member of the team that formulated Malaysia’s 2010 – 2020 Financial Sector Blueprint.

At the international level, she spent two years representing South-East Asia at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C.

Shasha is an Edward S. Mason Fellow and graduated with a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University and a BSc (Honours) in Economics from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. She is also an Obama Leader.

Under Shasha's leadership, Bank Negara Malaysia won the 2024 Communications Initiative Award by the Central Banking Publications based in London

Kwanho Shin

Korea Money and Finance Association Fund

Chair

Korea University

Professor of Economics

Kwanho Shin is a Professor of Economics at Korea University and a CESifo Research Fellow of University of Munich. He is concurrently seving as Chair Korea Money and Finance Association Fund. He was previously president of the Korea Money and Finance Association. He received his B.A. and M.A. in economics from Seoul National University and his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA. He served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas for four years and has occasionally taught as a visiting professor at UCLA, Claremont Graduate University and Claremont McKenna College. He was elected as "One of the Fifty Future Leaders in Korea” by the Seoul Economic Daily in 2010, named as a “MaeKyung Economist” by the Maeil Business Newspaper in 2011 and awarded a “Dasan Economist Prize” by The Korean Economic Daily in 2020. He also served as a council member for the National Economic Advisory Council from 2010 to 2011 and from 2022 to 2024. His publications on business cycles, growth, monetary economics, finance, international finance, and labor economics have appeared in leading academic journals, including American Economic Review, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Journal of International Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Journal of Labor Economics.

Dr. Mariya Pionka

Excelsia University College

Associate Professor, Research and Graduate Program Coordinator

Dr. Mariya Pionka is a Professor of Finance at Excelsia University College in Sydney, Australia. She brings more than twenty years of experience across the Australian higher-education sector and the banking and financial services industry, and has held senior academic and leadership positions in both Australia and Central Asia (Kazakhstan).

Professor Pionka has an extensive record of policy-relevant research and government engagement. She served as the Principal Investigator for the National Bank of Kazakhstan on the national project “Combating Financial Fraud, Including Financial Pyramids, Internet and Telephone Fraud.” Her research has been featured by the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations, and the IFC/World Bank Group, reflecting her strong impact on financial-sector policy, financial literacy, small business finance, consumer protection, and digital-era regulatory frameworks.

She is a multiple-award recipient, recognised through the International Council for Small Business Presidential Award and several teaching excellence awards from leading Australian universities. She is also co-author of the widely used textbook Financial Planning and Personal Finance: Australia and New Zealand Edition. A recipient of government and university research grants supporting work in financial literacy, fraud prevention, and digital-finance innovation, her current research focuses on how emerging technologies are reshaping financial crime and fraud prevention, with a particular focus on the policy implications of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing for financial-systems intelligence, cyber resilience, and future trust in global financial networks.

Philip Middleton

Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF)

Deputy Chairman

Philip Middleton is Deputy Chairman of OMFIF, a leading international independent research group based in London devoted to Central Banking, economic policy, and public investment. He is also a Founder and Vice Chair of the Group's Digital Monetary Institute where he works closely with private and public sector institutions on issues related inter alia to digital payments, CBDC, tokenised finance, and cryptocurrencies.

He recently completed nine years of service as a Commissioner at the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the regulatory body for the finance sector in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. He was formerly a senior Partner and Head of Central Banking at professional services firm EY, where he specialised in advising financial institutions, governments, central banks and other public institutions across Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa.

Philip has worked with both public and private sector clients in Hungary and in particular enjoyed advising and working with the MNB including a period of 5 years as a Member of the Board of Advisors at the Budapest Institute of Banking.

He has also held several roles within KPMG, including Partner and European Head of Financial Services Strategy Consulting. He holds degrees in History and Modern Languages from The Queen’s College, Oxford University, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Patrick Bolton

Imperial College London

Professor of Finance and Economics

Patrick Bolton is Professor of Finance at Imperial College London and senior advisor to the Lazard Climate Center. He is a past President of the American Finance Association, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He has co-authored Contract Theory (2005) with Mathias Dewatripont, The Green Swan: Central Banking and Financial Stability in the Age of Climate Change (2020) with Morgan Despres, Luiz Pereira Da Silva, Frederic Samama, and Romain Svartzman, and Money Capital: New Monetary Principles for a More Prosperous Society (2024) with Haizhou Huang.

Magda Bianco

Banca d’Italia

Head of Consumer Protection and Financial Education Department

Magda Bianco is Head of the Bank of Italy’s Consumer Protection and Financial Education Department. At the Central Bank, she previously worked in the Research Department and from 2014 to 2022 she was Head of the Customer Protection and Anti-Money Laundering Directorate.

Since 2021, she has been Co-Chair of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), and since 2022, Chair of the OECD/International Network for Financial Education. She is a member of the Governing Council of FinCoNet, and from 2017 to 2023 of the Italian National Committee for Financial Education. She served as economic advisor to the Italian Minister of Justice, and since 2015 has been economic and financial consultant to the Italian President of the Republic.

She has published articles on corporate governance, corporate finance, bankruptcy, economics of civil justice, consumer protection, and financial education.

Norbert Holczinger

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Head of Sustainable Finance Department

Norbert Holczinger is the Head of Sustainable Finance Department at the Central Bank of Hungary (MNB). He is responsible for the implementation of the MNB’s Green Programme which aims the greening of the Hungarian financial system. He coordinates supervisory actions to identify and mitigate environmental risks and to expand green financial services in Hungary. During his nearly fifteen-year supervisory career, he has played an active role in numerous domestic and international projects and regulatory initiatives, with a particular focus on sustainability issues as well as the insurance and actuarial fields. Previously, as a risk and actuarial expert, he was responsible for mortgage loan portfolio modelling, risk analysis and product pricing at Aegon Hungary.

He graduated as a Quantitative Economic Analyst (Corvinus University of Budapest), also holds a Finance (Fudan University) and MBA degree (Corvinus). Currently he is a PhD student at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Szilvia Gólya

OTP Group

Head of Green Competence Center

Szilvia Gólya, head of OTP Group’s Green Competence Center, graduated with a degree in engineering from Corvinus University of Budapest and went on to study and earn an MBA degree at the Collège des Ingénieurs in Paris. She began her career as a sustainability consultant at a Hungarian NGO, then worked for six years at General Electric as an engineer and later as a project portfolio manager on regional and global transformation projects. In 2020, he joined the OTP Bank team, where she is responsible for the program-level coordination of the bank’s ESG strategy and the operational tasks involved in its implementation.

Balázs Greinstetter

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Director

Balázs Greinstetter graduated from the Faculty of Law at Eötvös Loránd University in 2010. He began his professional career at the Prime Minister’s Office of Hungary, before serving from 2013 as Deputy State Secretary for Economic Planning at the Ministry for National Economy. In 2014, he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Minister. From 2018, he led the Managing Authority responsible for the implementation of SME grant programmes co-financed by the European Union and the Hungarian government, a position he held for seven years. Between 2019 and 2021, he was a member of the Supervisory Board of Széchenyi Funds Ltd., and from 2021 to 2025, he served on the Board of Directors of the Government Debt Management Agency (ÁKK).

Currently, he is the Head of the Digitalization Directorate at the Central Bank of Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Bank). His area of responsibility includes the digital transformation of the financial system, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence, as well as selected regulatory and supervisory matters related to financial innovation and emerging market technologies.

Géza Sebestyén

Corvinus University of Budapest

Associate Professor

Géza Sebestyén is the Head of the Center for Economic Policy at Mathias Corvinus Collegium, and an associate professor at Corvinus University of Budapest. He has Master’s degrees both in mathematics and economics, and a PhD in economics. His main fields of interest are monetary policy, fiscal policy, macrofinances, corporate finance and valuation. Besides Hungary, he gave lectures in France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Azerbaijan. Géza wrote hundreds of articles and is a regular media contributor. He has worked for some of the top Financial and Energy companies in Hungary. Géza is the mastermind and main organiser of the Math Challenge Championship, a math competition for Secondary School students.

Miklós Luspay

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Director

Financial Infrastructures and Payments Directorate

Mr. Miklós Luspay obtained a Master’s degree in Finance from Corvinus University of Budapest and a Law degree from Pázmány Péter Catholic University. He also holds a Master’s in Finance from Fudan University and an MBA from Corvinus University of Budapest. He joined the Central Bank of Hungary (MNB) as an analyst, with an expertise on the liquidity of payment systems. He also worked for the European Central Bank in 2011.

He is currently Director of the Financial Infrastructures and Payments Directorate where his main responsibility includes the development of the Hungarian electronic payment ecosystem and its retail system, including the instant payment system. His directorate created the Central Bank of Hungary’s payment strategy. Currently, they are involved in the payment regulation and responsible for the payment-related research at the MNB, as well as for the development of the CSD and CCP. In recent years, he was responsible for renewing the supervisory methodology, shaping and integrating the oversight and supervisory tasks related to the central bank's critical financial infrastructures, as well as for developing the related central bank risk-based oversight methodology. He also participated in the work of numerous international committees and working groups. He is the author and/or co-author of several publications on payment systems.